STORY TITLE: Lily's Secret
PART: 03 of ?
AUTHOR: Red Jacobson ( )
DISTRIBUTION: , HP Fan Fiction Archive, Archive of Our Own, Hentai-Foundry, Questionable Questing
DISCLAIMER: None of the Characters You Recognize belong to me, they all belong to JK Rowling and her publishers.
SUMMARY: It was a simple oversight, something James wasn't aware of, but it caused a lot of problems for Lily after Halloween 1981.
FEEDBACK: Of course! It Makes Me Write Faster
RELATIONSHIPS: James/Lily (past), Lily Potter/Selene Lovegood, Background Sirius/Remus, minor Harry/Luna Lovegood
RATING: NC-17
WORD COUNT: 4,971
SPOILERS: None, if you don't know how the Harry Potter story goes by now, why are you reading this story?
WARNINGS: If You've ever read any of my stories, you know what to expect, Oral, anal, Femme-slash, Dom/sub, multiple partners. The lemons won't appear for a few chapters yet, things need to be set in place, and time passing before it happens.
BACKGROUND SLASH WARNING: In this story, Sirius and Remus are a couple, but other than a couple of risque comments Lily makes to tease them, it doesn't have a major impact on the story. There are meta-reasons for the pairing, but there will be no on-screen activities between the two, not even a kiss, so if you dislike slash, you don't have to worry.
AUTHORS NOTES: Something a bit different from me, since Harry and his generation aren't the major focus of the story, although he will appear in the story. Hope you enjoy it anyway
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPARTMENT: Hugo Savage, who gets a mention in this chapter, is property of SeverusPhoenix, author of the amazing 'Three Slytherin Marauders' on , used by permission. Also, the briefly mentioned Professor Septimus is property of Dunuelos, hope he doesn't mind. The 'Fluorescent Fart Curse' is property of SlytherinSal, from the wonderful Krait-verse series of stories. Used with permission.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Charms Classroom
Monday, September 2nd, 1991
8:59 am
Lily stood in the doorway of her office, wiping the sweaty palms of her hands on her brand new Professors' robes. She didn't know why she was nervous, she had taught plenty of classes for Filius over the years, and this wouldn't be any different. For Merlin's Sake, it was a bunch of firsties, and half the class was Hufflepuff at that. So what if the other half were Slytherin, Andromeda had cracked down on all the blood supremacy crap years ago.
Taking a deep breath, she released it and opened the door into her classroom, a bright smile on her face.
Walking to the podium, she said, "Welcome to Hogwarts, and to your first lesson in Charms. To start with, I'm going to take attendance, so I can put faces to your names."
With that done, and she got a pleased smile from Ernie when she commented that she already knew who he was, she started with her lecture about what Charms were, and how important they were in everyday life, giving examples that they would use every day, and then getting into more specialized charms, like the Patronus, which had the class gasping when her doe started walking around the room, nuzzling some of the students. Even Draco Malfoy had a look of awe on his face by the time it faded away.
By that time, the nerves had completely faded away, and she had the class in the palm of her hand, to the point that several of them looked disappointed at the end of the lesson. She assigned them a short piece of homework and watched as they left the room, talking excitedly. She smiled as the last of them left, and poured herself a glass of water as she waited for the next class.
The jovial voice of Filius Flitwick coming from behind her made her jump, and she whirled around to face her mentor's smiling face. "That was one of the best introductory lessons I've seen in all my years teaching, Professor Potter. Very well done, and you had them enthralled with the demonstrations of the different charms, something I'm rather jealous I didn't think of. Keep it up, and your class will be the subject of at least half the letters the first years send home!"
She was stunned, she knew it had gone well, but that well? Shaking her head, she pulled out the lesson plan for her next class, the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Fourth Years.
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Wednesday, September 11th, 1991
Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch
After Lunch
Lily knew she shouldn't be here, but it was Harry's first official flying lesson, never mind that Sirius bought Harry his first real broom when he was six years old. She just wanted to see how he did flying with people he didn't know. She was in the shadows under the bleachers where she wouldn't be seen, but she needed to take the time to see her son. They hadn't spent much time together so far, which they had discussed, because she wanted Harry to settle in and make his own friends. He was already friendly with Neville and Ron of course and was always receiving letters from Luna, but an active boy needed more friends. Besides, she had already finished her last class of the day, so she was technically done for the day.
The Gryffindors and Slytherins soon filed out onto the field following Yolanda Hooch who had them line up next to a broom. She could see Harry leaning over and talking confidently to Hermione Granger, the muggleborn girl. Lily quirked a grin as she saw the girl stand up straight and put her hand out, the broom jumping up and smacking against her palm.
The students were soon floating up and down smoothly, and Lily was about to turn and go back in when there was a shriek of terror from one of the young girls. Turning around, it looked like Pansy Parkinson had lost control of her broom and was flying toward the Forbidden Forest. Before she could move, two figures were speeding after her, and Lily groaned, one of them was Harry, but the other was Draco Malfoy? That was interesting, but thinking back on it, she remembered Sirius mentioning that Narcissa had approached him to help negotiate a contract with Alonzo and Imelda Parkinson, so that could explain it.
Whatever the reason Draco was there, he and Harry were on either side of Pansy, and Harry had a grip on her broom, trying to hold it steady, while Draco had his arms around Pansy and lifted her over onto his broom. When she was off the broom, Draco turned around and headed back to the pitch, while Harry released the malfunctioning broom and let it speed away, crashing into the Whomping Willow and being destroyed. Harry had already turned to follow Draco and Pansy and was soon landing safely next to the two of them. Of course, safe was a relative word, with Yolanda and Minerva coming toward them in full sail.
Lily saw that Harry was safe, and he could handle whatever Minerva and Yolanda did, so she made her way back to the castle, it was nearly time for dinner.
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Hogwarts Library
Saturday, September 14th, 1991
After Lunch
Hermione sighed with satisfaction, the library was nearly empty, and she could spread out at her favorite table and just relax. She had chosen the book she wanted to read, and had it open in front of her, starting to read Professor Potter's introduction to her book, explaining how she and her best friend, Selene Ollivander, now Lovegood, had developed several of the charms in the book.
Hermione would never admit it, but she greatly admired Professor Potter, since it was well known that she was a muggleborn, just like Hermione, but had accomplished so much, including creating the spell that somehow killed the Dark Wizard who was causing so much trouble when she was a baby.
She had finished the introduction, almost giggling in places at the humorous way Professor Potter would describe some of the things her charms did. But as she was turning the page to the first chapter, a shadow fell across the book, and she looked up in annoyance. The annoyance faded slightly when she recognized Harry Potter sitting down across from her. Harry was still far too loud and excitable, and well, boy, but he at least was serious about his schoolwork, and didn't tease her about it.
Harry glanced over at the book and he grinned, "Reading mum's book, are you? It's hard to believe that my mum and Auntie Selene being the ones who came up with some of the prank charms. She always gets on Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus about taking their pranks too far. She absolutely hates when people are bullies."
Hermione listened with interest, it wasn't often that Harry would talk about his mother, even though it was easy to see that they were close. Maybe they didn't want him to be known as a teacher's pet, which was understandable. She'd seen it happen often enough in the non-magical schools she went to. After a few minutes, Harry stopped talking and looked a little nervous, which was very unusual for him, and he softly said,
"I'm not trying to be nosy, but it's pretty obvious that you and Lavender and Parvati have nothing in common, am I right?" She gave a hesitant nod, wondering what he was leading up to, but he continued, "Well, my girlfriend is Luna Lovegood, Auntie Selene's daughter. She's starting Hogwarts next year, and is almost as smart as you are, and she'd said that she's bored at home, and I was wondering if you would like to write her?"
That wasn't what Hermione was expecting, but it was actually kind of nice of Harry to think of her. She'd heard about Luna of course and the bond that had formed between them when they were younger. She'd been shocked that something like that could happen, but a couple of the older girls had shown her some books on the subject and was a lot more accepting of the idea. Giving Harry a warm smile, she said, "Thanks Harry, I'd love to write to Luna. What sort of things is she interested in?"
That was the start of the most enjoyable conversation that Hermione could remember, and by the end of the afternoon, she had already written her first letter to Luna. Harry had told her about the Snorkacks and Nargles and the other creatures that Luna enjoyed referring to, he explained that the creatures were made up by her mother and father to entertain her when she was very little, and they all kept going because it made them happy.
Harry wrote a letter of his own, and sent hers off with his, introducing Hermione to his owl Hedwig when they got to the Owlry.
LS & LS & LS
Hedwig dropped off Luna's reply the next morning, before taking Harry's letter to him, and Hermione found herself fighting back tears of laughter at the deadpan way Luna had of describing the occurrences around the Rookery, and she was really looking forward to meeting the girl. It was almost like talking to a living Goon Show routine, and she loved listening to those shows!
She and Luna started exchanging letters almost every day, and Hermione found herself writing about things she had kept to herself for years. How lonely she had been growing up, the bullying for being smarter than the other students, things that she would have sworn she'd forgotten. Hermione was surprised the next morning when Harry stepped up next to her as they were leaving breakfast and hugged her. When she looked at him, about to ask what he was doing, Harry released her and said, "Luna said you needed a hug, and since she wasn't there to deliver it, she deputized me to do it. Did it work? Are you feeling better now?"
She couldn't help but laugh and tell him that she was, and to thank Luna for her.
Hermione had almost forgotten that it was her birthday, she was having so much fun in class and writing to her new friend, that the appearance of the package on her bed that morning came as a complete surprise. She picked up the package cautiously until she recognized Harry's chicken scratch on the name tag. Unwrapping the paper, she smiled at seeing a copy of Professor Potter's book, but then her eyes welled up with happy tears when she opened the front cover and found that there were two personalized dedications to her, one from Professor Potter, and the other from Selene Lovegood, with a P.S from Luna. She hugged the book to herself, grinning like a loon at the feeling of having real friends for once in her life.
When she went down to the Common Room, she glomped onto Harry, and said, "That's for you and Luna both, so make sure you give Luna her share the next time you see her, understood?"
Harry laughed, and the two of them, quickly joined by Neville and Ron headed down to breakfast.
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Godric's Hallow
Thursday, October 31st, 1991
7:30 pm
Harry looked around curiously, this was the first time he was here, even though he knew that his dad was buried here. He saw Sirius and Remus standing back, giving them privacy. Harry followed his mum down the paths and started seeing the name Potter showing up more and more. He recognized the names of his grandparents and great-grandparents, and wondered what they were on to name a kid Fleamont? The kid was born to be picked on. Finally, his mum stopped at James Potter's grave and stood in front of it, her head bowed as she talked softly. He had no idea why she was talking to his father's gravestone, he wasn't there, so he obviously couldn't hear her, so what was the point? It's not like he had stuck around as a ghost, at least then they could talk to him and know James heard them.
After a few minutes, his mum stopped talking to James and gestured for him to come to stand beside her. Great, what I'm supposed to say? Do I tell him about rescuing Pansy Parkinson, or maybe how funny I feel sometimes when Luna presses herself against him in a hug? I mean, I don't want to talk about that, especially with mum standing there!
Managing to say something, he had no idea what, Lily took him by the hand and they walked away, stopping on a bench near the entrance, letting Sirius and Remus have a few minutes. They just sat on the bench in silence, until his mum said, "After we leave here, we're going back home for a while, there are things you need to know and are old enough to understand."
Harry just nodded, wondering what she was talking about? And why did she sound so serious? It couldn't be about Sirius and Remus being a couple, could it? He and Luna had figured that out years ago, it wasn't any big deal. Or was it that mum and Auntie Selene were 'special friends'? They had figured it out a long time ago, and Luna thought it looked like fun, but not for a few years yet.
Mum and Auntie Selene would probably be shocked at the conversations the two of them had, but they knew a lot more than most people their age. It made him feel funny when Luna would describe some of her visions, of him and Luna doing all these different things. There were times that he couldn't wait to be old enough, but other times he wanted to wait a lot longer. He didn't feel ready yet, and Luna said the same thing.
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Evans' Rest
Ottery St Catchpole,
Devon
An Hour Later
Harry's head was spinning, trying to understand what his mum and his uncles were telling him. He'd been worried when they insisted he swear a secrecy oath, but then they told him what had happened before he was born, and after that night. Harry suddenly realized he had a lot of things to say to his father, but they would get him a mouth full of soap!
"Wait a minute! Are you telling me that because dad didn't perform some sort of family ritual, that he might not have even known about, mum isn't considered a Potter? But I am, right? So why don't we take a trip to Gringotts and do the test so I can claim the Head of House ring? I declare mum a Potter, and Bob's your Uncle, right?"
Lily smiled at him, a little sadly, but shook her head, "It doesn't work that way, unfortunately, from what we've been able to discover, and what Sirius remembers James saying, is that the family magic requires the Head of the Family to be at least 17 years old, so he or she is magically mature enough to handle the family magic. We're still researching a way around it, but it was time you knew the truth, in case someone raises the question of why you aren't wearing the Potter ring. The question shouldn't come up, because I centered a notice me not charm on your watch, covering your ring finger."
Harry closed his eyes, trying to think, hoping he could come up with a possible solution. Hoping that the family magic that was already in him would give him some sort of hint, but he was drawing a blank. Looking around at the three of them, "Does anybody else know about this? Or is it just the four of us?"
Lily said, "The only other person who knows is Selene, she and I spent a lot of time researching while you and Luna were taking lessons trying to find a solution."
He couldn't help the grin that crossed his face when she mentioned spending time with Auntie Selene, but he tried to hide it. He wasn't quite fast enough and Lily looked at him piercingly. "Okay Harry, now I'm confused, what about this conversation was amusing enough to make you grin? Because I don't see anything funny about it at all."
Harry tried to look innocent, but from the look mum was giving him, it wasn't working. "Oh, well, when you mentioned spending time with Auntie Selene, 'researching' I wanted to ask if that was what they were calling it these days? Luna and I figured it out years ago, even before we figured out about Sirius and Remus. It doesn't matter to either of us, we just didn't say anything out of politeness."
The shocked look on mum's face would have been funny enough if it weren't for the howls of laughter from Sirius and Remus. Of course, mum pulled her wand and showed that Mrs. Weasley must have taught her the stinging hex as she chased the two of them from the room.
He was still laughing when she came back into the room, and he said, "I'm going to Luna's, see you in a bit," and activated the floo, calling out the password. He heard his mum laughing as the flames turned green and he stepped through.
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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Staff Room
Monday, December 23rd, 1991
9:30 pm
Minerva sat back in her seat, a smile on her face as she looked around the table at her staff. "I have to say this has been one of the most successful first terms I can remember, and I congratulate all of you. Test scores are up all around, and thanks to Professor Black and former Professor Septimus' redesign of the Potions classroom, there have been no accidents requiring students to be sent to the Hospital Wing, which even Horace wasn't able to claim."
She looked over at the Flying Coach and said, "How have the new brooms been working out, Yolanda? I'm sorry that Miss Parkinson got such a fright, but Mister Malfoy and Mister Potter acted swiftly enough that she wasn't hurt, and it got Alonzo Parkinson to light a fire under the Board of Governors to find the funds for new brooms."
"Is there anything else to discuss before we adjourn? I do want to thank Filius, Andromeda and and Pomona of the Senior Staff for volunteering to stay in the castle on break, because I, for one, am really looking forward to visiting someplace a bit warmer for the next 15 days!"
There was a good bit of laughter, but Pomona leaned forward to look at Lily, a grin on her face. "This isn't really an education related issue, but Lily, can you please tell us how you managed to acquire a fan club consisting of nearly the entire first year, in all four houses?"
Minerva noticed that she wasn't the only one who leaned forward to listen. She had noticed that Lily was unusually popular among the first years, but wasn't able to find the cause of it, even after watching her teach a few different classes. Yes, Lily was a very good professor, with a knack for breaking things down so that even the slowest students understood the lesson, but that wasn't enough to make the entire year practically hang on her every word.
Lily actually blushed at all the attention, but said, "Actually Pomona, from what I can tell, it started in the Sett, with your first year boys. The other boys noticed Ernie and Cedric's reaction when I was introduced, and asked Ernie about it. He told them about the incident at Harry's 8th Birthday Party, but apparently he embellished the story so that I'm practically the reincarnation of Mungo Bonham in the flesh. And then the word spread to Hannah Abbott, who passed the story to the other first year girls, and it spread out from there. It's kind of embarrassing, to be honest, and I really hope that they grow out of it before they're in the Fourth Year."
The female staff laughed and nodded, but Charity Burbage said, "I'm sorry Lily, but I never heard the story, what happened at Harry's 8th Birthday Party?"
Before Lily could respond, Filius laughed, "Oh, let me tell it, Lily will just down play everything. You see, in the afternoon of Harry's party, several of the boys and a few of the girls who brought their own brooms were doing some free flying. It was all perfectly safe, there were cushioning charms on the ground, and the brooms weren't able to go more than 15 feet in the air. At some point, Cedric Diggory, the other Badger who gave Lily an ovation, stopped paying attention to his broom, and collided with Ernie Macmillan, causing the boy to fall backward off the broom. Normally not a problem with the cushioning charms, but the way he was twisted, he would have landed on the top of his head and most likely broken his neck. At the same time, Ernie's broom broke into pieces, and one of them sliced into his side and damaged his lung."
The entire room, even those who knew the story, were listening intently, and Filius continued, describing Lily's speedy actions to keep Ernie from hitting the ground, and then removing all the splinters of wood, including the one in his lung, sealing the hole as she encouraged it to heal, and how Ernie was breathing better within seconds. "She then finished healing the wound in his side so that he doesn't even have a scar. Is it any wonder that Mister Macmillan was so impressed? And I've heard that he looked up the spells you used to save him and learned that all but one of them were Charms. So I would expect you to have a request for an apprenticeship in about 6 and a half years, Lily."
He was grinning at her as he finished, and Lily grinned back, "He certainly has the focus and the power to be a damned good Charms Master, but we'll see if he can bring up his theory, that's where he falls down slightly. But isn't this enough talking? I know you have a bottle of the good stuff in your desk Minerva, why don't you pour us a nightcap?"
Minerva grumbled a bit, nobody was supposed to know about that, but she pulled out the bottle and conjured a glass for the remaining staff.
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Macmillan Lodge
Scottish Highlands
Tuesday, December 24th, 1991
After Dinner
Ernie wiped his face with his napkin and took another drink from his mug before going back to talking about his first year at Hogwarts. He noticed that both his mum and dad were rolling their eyes as he started telling them about another one of Professor Potter's lessons. He didn't understand why they weren't as excited about the different uses of the levitation charm as he was. And the way she made things so easy to understand, she was an incredible teacher, the best in the school, although, Professor Sprout was very good as well.
Finally, his father interrupted him to ask about his other classes, and he talked a little about Herbology, Potions, and Transfiguration, but he didn't talk much about Defense Against the Dark Arts, because Professor Savage was so intimidating. Then he started talking about another one of Professor Potter's lessons, and how she demonstrated the Patronus in the very first class, and he was glad to see that both his mum and dad were looking impressed at that.
Before he could continue, the elves brought the pudding course, a wonderful treacle tart, and you didn't talk when there was treacle!
Between bites, his father said something interesting, "I know you are impressed by Professor Potter, and I don't blame you, not after the way she saved your life a few years ago. But she's gone far beyond that, I don't know if you are aware of it, but she's already one of the most highly regarded Charms Mistresses in Europe, and I've heard that she's planning to start studying rituals over the summer. A person of her talents would be welcome to put her talents to use in some of our family businesses, so, if you can see any way to help her out, without being a nuisance of course, it would be good if she thought kindly of the Macmillan family in the future, don't you agree?"
Ernie nodded, his mouth full, but he did like the idea of his wonderful professor thinking kindly of the family. And there was no way he would make a nuisance of himself, he was a pureblood, he was raised better than that!
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The Rookery
Ottery St Catchpole, Devon
Wednesday, December 25th, 1991
Just After Breakfast
Lily yawned from her seat at the table, before lifting the mug of coffee to her lips. Turning to Selene, she softly said, "I love Harry to bits, but if he wakes me up at 6 am during a holiday again, I'm going to sell him to you and Xeno, let you put up with him in the mornings!"
Selene grinned, "Sorry, I'm going to be playing host to him most of the Summer, you don't get rid of him that easily. But I understand what you are saying, Luna is the same way when she knows Harry is coming over. It's going to be strange not having her around next year, but Luna is really looking forward to meeting her quill friend Hermione, I think she writes to Hermione as much as she does to Harry."
Lily chuckled, "You'll love Hermione, she just as smart as Luna, but Luna is far more imaginative. Although, since Hermione started hanging around with Harry and his friends, she's loosened up a great deal. The little brat actually tried to use the florescent fart curse on a Ravenclaw during my class! I wasn't sure if I should take points for cheek, or give her points for successfully casting a spell above her level. In the end, I gave her a detention and we practiced the spell until she could cast it silently. I almost, almost feel sorry for Terry Boot the next time he annoys her!"
She waited while Selene got her laughter under control and leaned closer, saying, "I really haven't had the chance to speak to you alone, but you need to know that Harry and Luna are both aware of our 'research' time. According to Harry the two of them figured it out years ago. I didn't get a chance to explain that a lot of the time we were actually researching, and I wasn't going to upset him or Luna with the story of how we found the translation error just in time to prevent an explosion, especially since Luna was in the room with us at the time."
Selene had gone pale at first but then chuckled, "The two of them always were far more aware than they should be, but as long as they aren't rushing into trying things, I guess I can live with the embarrassment. And you're right, if it weren't for the research, I wouldn't be here to feel anything."
Lily set her cup down, and said, "This conversation is getting too serious, lets go play with the kids and Xeno!"
Selene laughed and set down her own cup, following her friend over to her husband and the two children, diving into the pile of wrapping paper with abandon.
End Chapter Three